Multifamily developers and Building Teams continue to push the envelope when it comes to creating places that wow potential renters and owners. The following projects are indicative of the types of cutting-edge amenities and features that multifamily tenants and owners are coming to expect from new developments.
1. L.A. NEIGHBORHOOD GETS ‘MICROPOLITAN’ TREATMENT
The Micropolitan at Larchmont Village is a new 34-unit project designed by architecture firm KFA and developed by Micropolitan LLC in Los Angeles. Rents range from $2,600 for a studio or small one-bedroom, to $4,500 for the largest two-bedroom units. Amenities include a rooftop deck-cum-BBQ area, outdoor lounge, community room plus full kitchen, bicycle storage, and pet spa. Residents can walk to Hancock Park and Hollywood and are close to Paramount Pictures studio. Multiple rapid transit options are nearby. The apartments offer open floor plans, large balconies, walk-in closets, and high-quality finishes. More photos at: BDCnetwork.com/Micropolitan. Photo courtesy KFA
2. SUCH A DEAL! FREE COFFEE AT SMOKE-FREE TEXAS APARTMENT COMPLEX
The Mallory Eastside Apartments, a 281-unit complex in Richardson, Texas, 15 miles north of Dallas, started leasing in April. The smoke-free community is packed with amenities: a business center with free drinks at the gourmet coffee bar; a “tropical oasis”—pool, private cabanas, and grilling stations; a dog spa; and a Zen meditation garden. Plus fiber optic cable and a smart home technology package. The DART Arapaho station is an 11-minute jaunt. Hunt Companies developed the property with its affiliates, Moss & Associates (GC) and Pinnacle Property Management Services. Photo courtesy Hunt Companies
3. LEED GOLD APARTMENTS NEAR METRO LINE TO D.C.
The Maxwell, a LEED Gold mixed-use project in Arlington, Va., has 2,200 sf of ground-floor retail and three levels of underground parking. It’s an eight-minute hop-skip-and-jump to the Ballston-MU Metro station for the 16-minute trip to the Federal Triangle station. The 163 luxury units range in size from 538 to 1,027 sf. KTGY Architecture + Planning (architect) led the project team for owner/developer Crimson Partners and owner Washington Real Estate Investment Trust: RD Jones & Associates (interior design), Tadler-Cohen-Edelson Associates (SE), Bowman Consulting (CE, landscape architect), Alliance Engineers (mechanical), and Clark Builders Group (GC). Photos: Sam Kittner (exterior) and Whitney Cox
4. CONVERTED DEPARTMENT STORE IN ALABAMA NOW A MIXED-USE RESIDENTIAL HUB WITH A FOOD HALL, CO-WORKING SPACE
In the 1920s, the Pizitz department store was the place to shop in Birmingham, Ala. The store closed in 1987, but two years ago, general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie led the renovation of the landmark structure for the ownership team of Bayer Properties, Stonehenge Capital, and Wisznia Architecture + Development. In addition to 143 apartments, a ground-floor food hall (designed by Rule Joy Trammel + Rubio) opened in February; later this summer, 13,000 sf of co-working office space will become available. Wisznia and KPS Group were the architecture team, with LBYD (SE), Appleseed Golden (design-build JV for food stalls and restaurants), and Masonry Arts (terra cotta restoration). Photos courtesy Bradfield & Gorrie
5. DETROIT’S DUCHARME PLACE PAYS HOMAGE TO MIES’S LAFAYETTE PARK
Photo: Jason Keen
DuCharme Place, a 185-unit apartment complex in Detroit, takes its design from elements of Mies van der Rohe’s historic Lafayette Park, across the way from the four-building complex. McIntosh Poris Architects’ Michael Poris, AIA, says the new lifestyle community (still partly under construction) “builds upon [Mies’s] vision” to create a relationship with nature. Brick, metal, and glass were used to recall the modernist palette. Bicyclists and walkers will have direct access to the Dequindre Cut Greenway, a recreation path that links the neighborhood to the Eastern Market and RiverWalk, Detroit’s riverfront park. Photo: Ducharme Place
6. ‘FLATS 8300’ WINS HONORS FROM USGBC CHAPTER
Flats 8300, a 359-unit condominium complex in Bethesda, Md., recently won an Excellence in Green Building “Wintergreen Award” from the Maryland chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. The project team—StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital (developers), WDG Architecture (architect), Paladino (LEED consultant), LORD Green Real Esstate Strategies (energy consultant), and Donohoe (GC)—trimmed water use 40.3% and energy consumption 23.7% over standard code. Nearly three-fourths (74%) of the site is open space. Flats 8300 has a WalkScore of 88 and is seeking LEED Silver certification. The property is owned by Invesco Real Estate and managed by Bozzuto. Photo: Bozzuto
7. RESIDENTS CAN DIP THEIR TOES IN THIS SALTWATER POOL
A saltwater pool forms the centerpiece of The Southerly, a new 175-apartment enterprise in Towson, Md., outside Baltimore. JDavis Architects chose a spherical design for the building to surround the courtyard, which features a grilling area, fire pit, bocce and cornhole courts, and hammocks. A fifth-floor sundeck has a lounge and second café. The Southerly, built by Old Town Construction, attained National Green Building Standard certification. It is located within walking distance of Towson Town Center mall and downtown Towson. Rent base: one-bedroom, $1,595; two-bedroom, $1,850; three-bedroom, $2,275. Photo: Taylor Property Group/Klein Enterprises
Related Stories
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
